Page 10 of Killer Summer
“I don’t want to be all drugged up anymore. I can’t cry. I can’t think straight or even get out of bed.”
“That’s fine, honey,” her mother said. “But maybe we should talk to the psychologist at the hospital fir—”
“And I want to take some kind of self-defense training, too,” Dani interrupted. “I don’t know. Maybe even get something for protection to carry with me. A pocket knife or a gun, maybe. I dunno.”
Her mother frowned. “Do you really think carrying aweaponis a good idea? What about your mace?”
“I don’t usually like weapons either, but you weren’t there,” Dani said, sitting up a little straighter. “Mace isn’t enough protection. He was enormous. Unstoppable.”
“Well, I think self-defense classes are an excellent idea,” her father said, pulling into their driveway. “There’s that martial arts studio just outside of town. I’m sure we can get you a trial lesson or two.”
“Thanks, Dad.” She grabbed her backpack purse and scanned the neighborhood as she opened the car door. Only one police car had followed them home from the funeral. It wouldn’t be long until the Kincaid family was on their own again and without police protection. Dani followed her parents inside and wiped a layer of sweat from her brow as the usually comforting scent of home greeted her. Even though the police were right outside their door, Dani no longer had faith in the one place where she should have felt safest. She felt hot. Cagey. Trapped within herself.
“Hey, you got a letter,” her mother said.
Dani’s internal alarm system pinged. “From who?”
“Your Aunt Lisa.” Her mother sighed and handed her the envelope. “Probably sending you a check for graduation.”
Dani sighed. “Oh, thank goodness.”
“I don’t know if I would say it was good.” Her mother stuck her nose in the air. “I wouldn’t take that blood money if I were you.”
“Aw, Mom. She’s just trying to be nice.” Dani gave the envelope a half smile. She hadn’t seen her Aunt Lisa in a long time, but she called often, mesmerizing her with tales about her adventures hiking around the world. Aunt Lisa seemed like a cool lady, but it wasn’t a surprise that her conservative parents didn’t want anything to do with her.
“I’m going out back for a little while.”
“Okay, sweetie,” her mother called out. “Dinner’s at six.”
She hung her purse on a dining room chair and stared out into her back yard. Her home was surrounded by a fence, their sky blue swimming pool a haven against her father’s green, perfectlymanicured lawn. A heat wave of shame flushed her skin. She needed to cool off.
The glass sliding door leading to their backyard was unlocked, as it usually was. A sick feeling wormed into her gut as Dani realized how unsafe her home was. Her entire life up to this point, she had many reasons to fear the world. Even though her parents were anxious, they were also careless sometimes when it came to safety. Some home security improvements were in order.
Dani stepped out onto the back porch and kicked off her shoes. She stepped to the edge of their in-ground pool and stared into the sparkling water, her toes gripping the cement ledge. The black dress her mother had gotten from Contempo Casuals was brand new, but she never intended to wear it again. She needed a swim. She didn’t care about ruining her funeral dress or her hair or what her parents thought as she fell into the pool, face-first. Chlorinated water filled her eyes and nose and mouth as she sank into the bubbly blue. She needed this baptism to wash away her sins. Under the water, everything was finally silent. Weightless. Easy.
She could have floated in that blissful underwater cocoon forever, suspended and supported in the cool, cool blue, but her lungs began to scream. Dani bobbed to the surface and floated on her back, trying to clear her mind. She needed to find a way to live again without Matt Vickers haunting her every move, but whenever she closed her eyes, she saw his face. He was waiting around every dark corner. Hiding behind every tree. In the back seat of every car. He could be watching her from behind the slats of her fence at that very moment, and she would never know.
Crunch.
The snap of a breaking twig pulled Dani out of her watery bliss. She glanced around her perfect backyard, past the cushioned patio furniture, beyond her mother’s hibiscus hedge, her heartslamming in her chest as she searched for danger. Her gaze landed on a shadowy corner behind the garden shed—the one she helped her father build when she was eleven. Her pulse continued to speed at the thought of her stalker hiding out among the bags of potting soil and discarded plants. He could be back there at that very moment, waiting to make his move.
Dani stepped out of the pool with all of her senses tingling, all cylinders firing in every nerve. Rivers of water dripped from her hair and her funeral dress as she stepped out of the pool toward danger. Soft blades of grass cushioned her footsteps as she made her way toward the shed. She needed something to protect her. A weapon. Her gaze landed on a shovel leaned up against the shed. She grabbed the gardening tool and held tight to the rough wooden handle, forcing herself to move forward. To face what was waiting for her in the shadows.
She held her breath and rounded the corner of the shed with the shovel held high.
A small brown squirrel skittered away from a pile of overturned broken pots. Dani let out a shuddered laugh as she lowered the shovel. It was nothing. Just her imagination.
“Dani! Dinner’s ready!”
She turned at the sound of her mother’s voice. She wasn’t hungry, but it was time to go in anyway. Dani placed the shovel back against the shed and took one last look at the darkened corner of her yard. Her eyes caught a strange shape in the flowerbed near the shed. Was that a footprint in the dirt?
“Danielle, did you go swimming in your new dress?”
She turned her attention back to her mother.
“Yeah. Sorry. I was hot.”
“The chlorine will make it fade!” Her mother said in her disappointed voice.
